Sell Your House Or Go To Jail

Many thanks to J.R., who emailed me last night and shared the following story:

I just got a call from my brother a few hours ago, from jail. My brother has never been in trouble before, so I was totally shocked when I got the automated collect call message. The reason he is jail is even more shocking- he failed to sell his house.

He just went through a nasty divorce which left him cash poor but equity rich, so as part of the divorce, there was a list of debts that would be paid off when the house was sold. It turns out that one of the debts was for a lawyer appointed by the state for their children. The judge called a hearing to find out why the house wasn’t selling. (the house has been on the market for eighteen months now) My brother came in with evidence showing house improvements, listings with realtors, open houses, and price reductions, but it was to no avail. Six months in the slammer for contempt of court, or until I can wire him the money to pay off the lawyer.

I was wondering if you have ever heard of anything like this before.

I have to admit, this is a new one on me.

It certainly adds a whole new dimension to the "Must Sell!!!!" comment in the listing, doesn’t it?

If not selling a home is a crime, then they are going to have to make the jails a whole lot bigger- the number of "criminals" out there is huge, and growing by the day. Here’s hoping justice prevails for T.R. and his brother.

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8 Responses to Sell Your House Or Go To Jail

This amounts to debtor’s prison, and the judge will probably get away with it.

The guy can’t come up with the money to pay the state’s lawyer, he surely isn’t going to come up with the money to sue the state for this nonsense.

Anyway we can make headlines out of this? Maybe some media outlets would be interested, perhaps local news?

A power-crazy judge sends a guy to jail for not paying his bills, removing his ability to pay his bills.

Okay that’s long for a headline but you get the point.

zarkov01November 8, 2007

It’s debtor’s prison, but in the legal arena he is going to jail for contempt of court. Six months sounds like a very long time, which makes me think that’s there’s more to the story than what’s presented. For example, the judge has held him in contempt before and decided to up the sentence to get him to obey. He might have also done something to frustrate the sale. On the other hand, you could have a rogue judge. Happens all the time in divorce court, which seems to bring out the worst in people including judges. Assuming that the facts presented are all there is, and this judge has abused his discretion: appeal the contempt. But it’s very hard to win an appeal, and expensive. The higher court will bend over backwards to uphold the trial judge. If his decision is correct under any theory, they can uphold him. This guy is just screwed. He should have known better than to get married. My advice. Beg borrow of steal the money to pay the lawyer and get out of jail. Drop the price of the house to a point where it will sell quickly. Obviously the place is overpriced for this market. Take the money pay off the debts, and get a better lawyer if necessary. Formulate a strategy for dealing with this case. Don’t play fair, but appear to be playing fair. Don’t remarry.

You will not be able to make a public issue out this. The press won’t touch it, mainly for political reasons. Outrageous things happen to husbands and fathers every day in family law court and it gets no publicity. Arrest an illegal Mexican for working under 15 bogus social security numbers and the ACLU will come to his aid. The press will scream “xenophobe,” “racist,” and so on. It’s all politics and men don’t know how to play the game. The women’s groups lobby the legislature and they get what they want. The men won’t do it. This is what happens to them.

A similar thing recently happened to me as well. I had to release my notice of interest in a property so my soon to be ex could sell, equity stripped of course, to her friends. If I didn’t, it would prove their case for contempt. The amount of money lost was in the tens of thousands of dollars. (My housing market is not seeing dramatic price drops yet.)

I mean, it stopped people from doing drugs and it stopped people from blowing places up…

I don’t see how the government couldn’t completely solve this situation =P

(and of course my captcha word is proper as always.. “screwup”)

nvattorneyNovember 8, 2007

Do we have a source on this? Do we even know what state it’s in? I’ve learned that often, if you don’t have all the facts, a story seems more outrageous than it is. I’ve done some very limited family law. If the Judge orders you to sell your house, you sell your house. There’s no “let’s wait 2 years to see if the market rebounds” which seems like a possible explanation in this case. But, we just don’t have all the facts. (Forgive me if I’ve overlooked a link to the story or something.)
That said, I’ll say that the Family Court bench does not exactly attract the best and brightest. If it’s as simple as this post makes it, I’d call 6 months a clear abuse of discretion.

There is no link, this is from an email I received. I will see if the sender minds me saying which state this happened in.

Even in my limited experience in divorce cases, [just dealing with the divorces of family and friends] I know that this is about as emotional as it gets, and so yes, it is often hard to judge the whole situation from one side of the story.

I also know however, from my limited experience with the courts as well though, that I’ve seen rulings be wacky, arbitrary and unjust.

Doom’s limited budget can make it difficult to verify everything sent to us, but I believe this particular letter to be credible.

We heard from J.R.’s brother late last night. He is from Charleston, S.C.:

Hi, the story my brother told is completely accurate. I returned from jail a few hours ago. The prison is at 3-4X capacity), and judges are out of control. Another interesting note is that the judge did not care that I was the custodial parent of my 5yr old daughter. This could have lead to me losing custody. I have a lot of documentation including the “Civil Contempt Order”. If not for the help of my relatives I would have had to serve out the complete 6 month sentence. The judge even specified that I could not get and credit for good time or work credits. Very tired now, I had to sleep sitting upright on a bench (only 1 hour) in a holding cell that I was in for 20 hrs. It was so crowded I had to stand up for most of the time.

jailbirdNovember 9, 2007

I’m finally out of jail thanks to my brother and mother.Horrible experience if you want to hear about it. Jail is 3X overcrowded.

The GAL (gardian ad Litem) filed a “rule to show cause” stating “I believe Mr. X and Mrs. X have made no serious attempt to sell their home as their house has been on the market for over a year.Neither have responded in any way to my requests for information.”

Our separation agreement states:

7.a. The former marital home has been placed on the market for sale. Both parties shall make a good faith effort to sell the home and each shall cooperate in the showing of the home to prospective buyers and in signing all documents necessary to effect the showing and sale of the home.

7.c. From the closing on the sale of the home, before disbursement to the parties, a check for the proceeds shall be delivered to the firm of XXXXXXXX for disbusement as follows:
4. The Gardian ad Litem’s fees and costs associated with the custody dispute

I provided the court with the MLS listing history, pricing history (dropped $35,000 on mid 200k home) comps in neighboorhood (house is the lowest per sq\ft in neighborhood since listing.) We have had only 1 offer. It was a 50k low ball and when we countered 10k less they pulled their offer.She even admitted on the stand that I did call her and provided a status and told her I updated my attorney monthly. Who she had been calling monthly since. I never denied a showing and staged the home before every showing.

I thought that we would be in and out and the rule would be dimissed. She had no proof that we were not trying to sell. My evidence was overwelming, I thought. Instead the judge found me in contempt and sentenced me to 6 months with no chance of a reduction for good behavior or work credits. Only way out was to pay off the GAL. My ex walked out with no contempt charge and she has been resisting price reductions the whole way. The judge was very rude to us from minute 1. I think he had his mind made up from the beginning. The “good ol’ boy” network is alive and well in the south. I don’t think he liked my “yankee” accent.